Flickr Annoyances

Author: Will

21 Apr

It’s still early days for me and Flickr. Whilst I can appreciate its benefits there are a few things about it that annoy me:

Inability to quickly grab thumbnail HTML for multiple images to use on external websites such as this blog. Currently, I’m having to visit each image individually, click through to see all available sizes, click through again in order to choose the thumbnail size and only then get access to the required HTML. I would prefer to be able to select all of the images I’m interested in and then quickly get access to the HTML source for all images in a particular size format.
Only being able to add images to a single group at a time and then having to confirm each one individually. This isn’t such an issue when you’re assigning groups to a couple of images, but the process becomes laborious pretty quickly. I would like to be able to quickly send my content to the relevant groups I’m already a member of.
Groups that insist I post comments to X number of other images whenever I add one of my own to the group. The process for assigning groups is already slow enough. Don’t ask me to do more work when you’re already asking me to add my work into your group. Seems a bit cheeky to me…

This last one, I find, is a particular pain in the ass. Two of the reasons why I starting posting my photos to Flickr was showcase them and also to get feedback. Groups or pools are useful in helping to find an audience, but some ask for too much, I feel.

What do you think about these points? Do you think these are reasonable
expectations or am I expecting too much from a free service?

Filed under: Showcasing

2 Responses for "Flickr Annoyances"

SarahG April 22nd, 2008 at 4:42 pm 1
You need to look into one of the various API/WordPress plugins around maybe to deal with point 1. Something that allows you to specify which of your photos are displayed. I just use the badge, it’s javascript so not great but it does.

Second point can be overcome with a greasemonkey script. I know Dave has it on his (drop him a message on Flickr if you want to know what it is), I don’t run GM so I don’t have anything like that. It is a bit tedious at times, but I only tend to add to 2-3 groups at a time (space them out, aim for the most views that way!)

Third point, I don’t bother with groups like that! There are plenty of groups on the same subject that don’t require you to comment/favourite/invite anything else, so I tend to just stick with them.
admin April 22nd, 2008 at 9:59 pm 2
Thanks for the suggestions, Sarah. I’d not come across the badge before now. Looks like it should be useful.

I’m not a GreaseMonkey user either, but thanks anyway. I’m still finding out what’s what on Flickr as I’ve only really used it from the viewing side of the fence until now. I can see that the water actually runs quite deep and there’s a lot more of a community feel to it than a casual observer might see.

Yup, I’ve started ignoring requests from groups that have these sorts of viral policies. There are just too many of them to keep up!